Dancer seeks lawsuit against Demi Lovato

The dancer whom Demi Lovato punched in the face is opening up about the incident that led to the “Sonny with a Chance” star being kicked off the Jonas Brothers tour and placed in a treatment facility to deal with emotional issues.

“To this day, I haven’t gotten an apology. I’ve heard nothing,” Alex Welch, 21, told People magazine. “That’s sad if you think that person is your friend.” (An insider said, “Demi hasn’t been able to call Alex because she is sequestered in treatment, but multiple efforts have been made to reach out to her.”)

What exactly prompted the Disney star to sucker-punch her so-called pal? Evidently, “she had gotten in trouble” with tour managers for her behavior the night before (we can only guess what that bad behavior entailed), and blamed one of the dancers for ratting her out. Alex said Demi pulled the dancers in a room and threatened them. But since Alex was not involved in said ratting out, “I didn’t say anything and didn’t think twice about it,” she said.

But then, “we were on the plane with the Jonases having this awesome time and I didn’t get a call or text from Demi or a ‘hey, you got a problem with me?’ Nothing,” Alex said. “And she walks up and punches me and literally walked away and got in her seat.” Whoa!

Naturally, Alex has lawyered up, and her attorney said, “We have contacted the Lovato camp and we are waiting for a response. If we don’t hear back, we will pursue litigation.”

A spokesperson for Demi said, “We are in the process of engaging with Alex’s lawyer and hope to resolve this as quickly as possible.” Her rep said she “feels awful about what happened.” Well, of course she does. She was kicked off a tour and sent to rehab.

The Art of Flirting

Well, that was even faster than we expected. Days after his romantic vacation with supposedly on-again flame Cameron Diaz, Alex Rodriguez was spotted chatting up another woman — “Real Housewives of New York” star Kelly Bensimon.

An onlooker told the New York Post that at a recent art event in Miami, the Yankees slugger “had his arm round Kelly and they were flirting.” The next day, A-Rod and the former shopped for art together.

“While Alex was recently seen with Cameron Diaz again, they’re not back together. He is single,” another source said.

Hm … wonder if Cameron is aware of that?

Handler-ing Criticism

Chelsea Handler insisted that she was not sticking up for pal Jennifer Aniston when she trashed Angelina Jolie as a “home-wrecker” (and some other, far less printable names). The caustic comedian said she was just doing her job.

“Can I just say, I’ve been making fun of Angelina Jolie since she made out with her brother,” the “Chelsea Lately” host pointed out on her show. (The actress famously creeped out viewers by smooching brother James Haven at the 2000 Academy Awards, though “making out” is a slightly excessive way of describing it. Slightly.)

Although she recently vacationed in Mexico with Jen, Chelsea said her comments were not fueled by a bitter bout of girl-bonding, but are part of a standup routine “which I do every weekend, which I’ve done all year and for five years.”

The moral of the story? “If I’ve learned anything from this,” Chelsea said, “it’s to write some new jokes.”

Kitty Raymond is an entertainment writer and astrologer. She welcomes feedback at kitty@media-darling.com.